DO Dell Computers have higher quality components?

[Beavermatic]

Rule of thumb for me has always been build my own gaming desktop (and I do), and buy custom gaming laptops because they are a pain to work with and breakdown/reassemble, etc.

And for my gaming laptops, I've always bought Alienware... and they are anything BUT cheap.

My latest is the Alienware 18... and it is built like a tank (not like toughbook tank, but extremely high quality casing/components/etc). I can't say there's one "cheap" piece of hardware of engineering in there, because... there's not.

Of course, when you pay over $3000 for such a thing, it should be. And it is. And it's technically a Dell.

You get what you pay for. There's a reason some of the higher end Dell's cost as much as they do... warranty (also including accidental damage replacement), parts replacements next day to you, proprietary design research, shipping, manufacturer, 24/7 onsite support (they send someone to your location to do repairs). All of that costs money, and simply can't be done at the price you can build a computer for.

But you're also self-insuring your own hardware when you do your own build... meaning if something goes wrong at any time, you have to figure it out for yourself, hope its under whatever manufacturer warranty of that particular part, hope its covered, and either wait weeks for a replacement or buy it yourself. Or you can take it to a shop if you don't know what your doing, and end up paying almost $100 an hour for repair plus parts.

 

[bononos]

What is the power supply efficiency for the dell models? do you want 70% or 85%?

I looked at PowerSpec brand machines until I saw the Allied brand PSU in a picture on their web site. If I spend $800 and the machine will be on for 30,000+ hours, demand something better!

For PSUs, I read efficiency is best at about 50% of max load. check into efficiency for low loads.

I put my new Z220 on a kill-a-watt, and it was pulling 40 watts, and that was with 1 SSD, and two spinning rust drives. (core I7 with integrated graphics and an 80 gold rated PSU.) I was shocked that I am at 10%!

Don't think it could be as low as 70%. More likely they are all 80+ as a minimum. You could crack open the case and take a look at the psu label and see what it says.